Turkey Raids Businesses As Postcoup Crackdown Continues

Police in Turkey continue to round up people accused of supporting a failed coup attempt in the country last month.

Security forces in Istanbul on August 18 raided more than 100 locations in the early morning hours and detained an unknown number of individuals.

Prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 187 people, mostly from the business and financial sector who are accused of financing self-exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the authorities say masterminded the coup plot.

Gulen, who lives in the United States, has denied any involvement in the July 15 uprising that left 340 people dead, including about 100 coup supporters.

Prime Minister Binali Yildrim said on August 17 that 40,029 people have been detained in connection with the investigation and about half have been formally arrested.

More than 4,200 companies and institutions with purported ties to Gulen have been shut down, he added. Nearly 80,000 people have been removed from state posts -- mostly in the military, judiciary, police, and civil service.

Also on August 17, the country announced a "supervised release" of some 38,000 prisoners arrested before the coup in order to free up prison space for the mass detentions.